Saturday, March 18, 2017

Man Shot Dead At Paris Airport After Grabbing Soldier’s Gun

A man was shot dead Saturday morning at Paris’s Orly airport after
he rushed a group of soldiers and seized one of their firearms.

Update 1045 GMT — Bomb squad clear airport, counter-terror police take over investigationThe first details about this morning’s assailant, whose attack
is now officially being treated as a terror case following the
assumption of responsibility for the case by counter-terror
investigators, have now been released. Born February 1978, the
39-year-old male is known to police for drug offences and is suspected
of having “self-radicalised” during a spell in prison.
The French national, who it is believed shot a police officer in the
head with a shotgun before wrestling a military rifle from a soldier at
Orly airport, had previously been under surveillance but that watch was
curtailed. He has also at times been homeless.
In other developments, the French bomb squad have now completed their
search of the airport and have declared it free from devices. It was
previously believed the attacker may have been wearing an explosive
vest, but this was not the case.Update 1000 GMT — attack linked to earlier shooting
French police have now established a link between this morning’s attack
at Paris Orly and an earlier shooting in Stains, Seine-Saint-Denis, a
region well known as being the present epicentre of anti-government and anti-police sentiment among Paris’s migrant communities.
According to a report
by BFMTV at 0655 CET police in Stains stopped a car for a roadside
check, asking the driver for identification. After taking out his
identification papers the driver also drew a weapon, reported by Le Soir to be a shotgun, and opened fire on officers.
One officer was hit in the head by the shots fired. The attacker then
drove away, later abandoning his vehicle in Val de Marne, the Paris
department which borders Orly airport. Stealing a car, the attacker is
then reported to have driven to Orly airport, where it is believed the
same individual grabbed a FAMAS military rifle from a soldier.
Although
these reports have come to French media from a “police source”,
official police spokesman have not yet confirmed an “absolute link”
between the two events.The story so far:
Paris Orly airport, located approximately seven miles to the south of
the city centre was evacuated around 0830 CET Saturday after a man was
shot dead by soldiers of operation Sentinel, the French
counter-terrorism military deployment to the mainland.
French daily newspaper Le Figaroreports
the individual rushed a group of three soldiers and was successful in
wrestling one firearm, which he then took into an airport shop. The
assailant was subsequently shot dead by “security forces”.
No passengers or members of the security servies are understood to have been injured in the incident.More...